Lure by Tim McGregor

Author:Tim McGregor [McGregor, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: epub, ebook, QuarkXPress
ISBN: 978-1-7379823-1-9
Publisher: Tenebrous Press
Published: 2022-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

11

ARWYN DOES NOT live to see the morning. With both legs chewed off, he has simply lost too much blood. Mesud clings to life, but he is senseless with a wide-eyed fever. Two attempts are made to fetch the remains of Bjarni and Jon from the water, both foiled by another mermaid attack. Clovis loses his skiff in the attempt but manages to swim to safety before the creature can eat him. Neither corpse is recovered. They are picked apart by the fishes and the birds, until there is nothing left to float.

The Prefect asks Father to arrange the burials, even though the coffins will be empty.

Some try to fish from the dock, casting their nets in, only to have them ripped from their hands. Gunther stalks the pier relentlessly with a harpoon in hand, eager for any chance to spear the monster. With each throw he takes, the mermaid rises to the surface to taunt him further. Most of us simply watch from the safety of the shore as she glides back and forth, patrolling the harbor. Anyone foolish enough to climb into their skiff quickly scrambles out again when the mermaid rushes for them. I have never seen anything move that fast.

This goes on for days. With the men unable to fish, larders and pantries soon empty out. There are only a few families that own cows, but these animals have all become sick. Blood squirts into the pail now, instead of milk. Eggs collected from every coop are spoiled, cracking out a gray sludge. Hagar’s goat is found floating in the bay, and dogs begin to disappear.

In a place where fishing is everything, the village is going hungry. And the vicar’s family, who depends solely on the kindness of its parishioners, goes hungry sooner than most. How can they contribute to the tithe, the fishermen ask, when their own barrels are down to last winter’s dried fish heads?

The village council meets in the church again. We have nothing to offer but water. The men rail and curse at their predicament. Does the mermaid mean to starve them out by preventing them from doing the only thing they know how? If they cannot harvest the cod and the redfish now, they will certainly not last the winter. Are they being punished? Have they offended our One True God in some way? Is there some way to make contrition and make the monster go away? The good Reverend Uriah has no answer for them. All we can do, he tells them, is pray.

Gunther declares them all cowards and walks out in disgust. The rest drift off in ones and twos. Bryndis and I stand at the window, watching them leave. Pip hides under the table, complaining that he is hungry. Bryndis gives him a piece of dried eel skin to chew on.

***

Early morning, and the wharf is empty save for a lone figure framed against a pink sunrise. The fishermen and their wives stay away from the water now. There is just this solitary villager, staring out at the sea.

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